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05 August 2013

FOMO

Yesterday, between visiting several cute apartments, the lovely Nick and I popped into Parson's for midday drinks, fried food, and some serious talk about FOMO. FOMO? What's that you ask? Nick weaved the phrase so seamlessly into conversation, that I found myself nodding and agreeing with whatever he was saying, though I had no idea what it meant.

FOMO is real, and was definitely in full force this weekend. Everyone went to Lollapalooza, everyone but me (and Nick, and Emma, so and not everyone...) But it felt like everyone was there seeing myfavoritebands, while I was left to my own devices (re: taking four hour long practice GRE exams). But the truth is, while FOMO is real and annoying and occasionally hurtful, it can be dealt with in great positive ways. In an effort to not be bummed out and pissed off all weekend long, I busied myself with some real good activities striking the perfect balance between me time AND friend time. Is this was being a strong, independent, woman is all about??

On Friday I embraced my not-so-secret-inner-Jewess and went to the synagogue with my father and his charming friend, D. But prior to attending the service, we had delicious tapas style Italian food at Bar Ombra One word, three syllables: negroni. We drank delicious negronis and ate delicious snacks, and in the end, going to synagogue was easy. Sort of.

Saturday morning I woke up in a real funk. Like down and out summer blues. To shake the glum from my bones, I decided to do a whirlwind cleanup of my bathroom. I threw away pounds of old makeup and cosmetics, cleaned out my medicine cabinet, and scrubbed every surface. It was worth it.

In the afternoon, I ate panzanella, took a four hour exam, and did laundry all at the same time. It was only mildly painful. But hey, my scores went up! THX Kaplan.

That night, I met up with Jackie at Lula and had one of those *pinch me* moments where I realized I was going to be moving back to the neighborhood and that Lula could soon become my new daily haunt. Also, Jackie is a goddess who is full of energy and vigor. Girl knows how to instill strength and inspire a person with just her words!

Sunday, Nick and I bummed around Logan Square and Palmer Square in search of future homes and new opportunities. I was gifted a free Arnold Palmer by a new friend, we got a table at Parson's with no wait, and the weather was unbelievably perfect. I must have walked four miles through the neighborhood just taking it all in.

Last night, Dad and I headed over to D's to make a giant Persian meal from scratch. Mark Bittman recently published a full menu for making an Armenian/Persian dinner, and we recreated the entire thing. The dill rice with fava beans was my favorite, and I fully intend on recreating it in my new rice cooker!

So there. Upon reflection, all of these wonderful delicious experiences would not have happened had I bucked up, threw down some serious cash, and just gone to Lollapalooza. I would not have enjoyed a leisurely weekend like this, learned new recipes, improved my math skills, or discovered that I'd been harboring makeup that was older than I care to admit. All in all, I had one of the best weekends I've had in a long time, because it was fueled by my terrible FOMO - which I am proud to say I have stamped out.